The design of this project was a journey of discovery. The original concept was half submerged into the rise of the landscape. As the concept navigated all the challenging conditions of site / environment and budget, a contradictory strategy emerged. There seemed no reason to hide the building in the landscape. It was located in a rural setting, not in a natural forest. The building took on a monumental form of materiality and structure, anchored with unapologetic strength of presence into its landscape.
Tying together the old and the new, Picket House engages with its streetscape and surrounding heritage character. Subtle material transitions between the existing and the new acknowledges its contextual relationship.
Sited in a suburban context, the house’s corner site provokes a dialogue between its occupants and the surrounding community through the archetypal picket fence. Offering opportunities for social engagement between the layering of fence, façade, existing and alteration – the rhythm of the pickets establishes moments of exposure and concealment between the street and inner private gardens.
Acute House is the transformation of a ‘renovator’s nightmare’ into a compact 21st century family home. The severe limitations of a tiny, very triangular site and the demanding heritage context have resulted in a pointy new wedge of house that is designed to exploit its problems.
The original, and extremely decrepit, Victorian weatherboard cottage had become impossible to inhabit but was well loved by the neighbourhood as well as its new owners.
We tried to retain its weathered character by re-using as much original fabric as possible from warped weatherboards and fence palings to random accumulations such as door knobs, vents and street numbers. Like fragile museum artefacts, these were carefully removed, labelled, stored and re-installed in their original location on a new mount that not only highlights their charms by contrast but allows the house to live again in a new way.
Internationally renowned, Melbourne is consistently being ranked as one of the world’s most liveable cities. Boasting some of the best fine dining restaurants and cafes in the country, a world-class art scene, and all the while located near beautiful beaches and pristine national parks, Melbourne is already one of the world’s most enviable places.
Over the next 30 years, a massive 480 hectares of industrial land in the heart of Melbourne will be transformed into a new inner-city precinct filled with shops, restaurants, parklands, community centres and educational facilities. And one of the first retail developments kicking off the area’s catalytic transformation will be Woolworths’ new supermarket neighbourhood centre.
Nestled in a heritage protected inner-city suburb of Melbourne this is a home with a sense of discovery. Designing a family home can be a complex venture: a house should be functional, environmentally sensitive, affordable and a good fit into the neighbourhood. A home should provide shelter with a sense of space that is your own; it should be light filled and warm. This determines siting, layout, room proportions and the articulation of the building fabric through openings, materials and details. This is an extension at the back of an Edwardian weatherboard house in a residential area with an historic but diverse building stock. The built neighbourhood is dense, fragmented and eclectic, providing starting point and inspiration for our design. We opted to stretch the building over the entire length of the site, rotated it 45 degrees and pulled it apart. A somewhat unexpected move, this generated an interesting sequence of interconnected spaces and an experience of gradual revelation as you move through the house.
Beyond Rest is a floatation centre housed in an industrial warehouse in Collingwood Melbourne. Float tanks are used for both relaxation and rehabilitation purposes by a wide ranging client base. This is a growing wellness industry which offers a range of physical and mental health benefits.
Our client engaged us to design a three-storey residence on a 545 square metre block at Wyndham Harbour, one of the largest marinas on Port Phillip Bay. The third storey was necessary to capture harbour views and the project was given an allowable budget of $750,000.
The elevated 545 square metre block is in close proximity to the Wyndham Harbour Marina, just two blocks away, and had the clear potential for a house to be built that would enjoy magnificent harbour views. The site is an irregular shape, however, which meant we needed to maximise site coverage in order to allow for a larger habitable floor area within the home.
A new two-storey addition with significant alteration works were undertaken on an existing cream brick house in Rosanna.
The new additions take advantage of the sloped site by creating additional bedroom and living areas within a series of stepped cubed forms. The configuration of these intersecting forms and openings help encourage cross-flow ventilation throughout the home.
A House for All Seasons is a contemporary house designed for the evolving needs of a young family within the context of a heritage streetscape in inner-city Melbourne. The design of the form and facades of the house was carefully calibrated to the grain, scale and materiality of neighbouring dwellings. Innovative, efficient spatial planning provides a generosity of amenity within a compact footprint.
It’s no secret that everyone covets corner apartments. More light and better views, right? Well, not so with Abode318, our new Melbourne CBD residential apartment tower, where everyone gets a view: it’s democracy in action! Look closely at the wave-like 55 storey form and you will realise that each of the horizontal and vertical waves consist of individual rooms articulated as protrusions, creating the effect of a set of drawers pulled out at random.
These drawers gives residents the chance to give their home an individual identity as well as coveted corner views up and down Russell Street, challenging conceptions of the homogeneity and limitations of apartment living. Each apartment has a presentation to the street, creating a collection of variably expressed individuals.
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